Back in 1967, Bob Bondurant sold a Cobra Daytona for a paltry $4,000. Over the weekend, Bondurant (pictured above right in the red shirt) watched a Daytona cross the block for an astounding $7.25 million at Mecum’s inaugural Monterey sale,Â setting a record for the highest price paid for an American car at public auction, according to Mecum.

“Selling this amazing piece of American race history at our first Monterey auction has been the crowning achievement of my career and Mecum Auction’s 22 years of selling collector cars,” said Dana Mecum, president of Mecum Auction. “This hand-built car beat the fastest cars in the world and has now added another ‘win’ to its list of accomplishments. Â It certainly finished in record form again.”

Mecum deserves credit for cranking up the publicity machine in major fashion for this one, though this is clearly the ultimate catch for the Shelby cognoscenti.

The 1965 Daytona Cobra was one of six cars built by Shelby to compete against Ferrari in the FIA World Manufacturers Championship GT class.Â It stared out as an experimental coupe body designed by Peter Brock built on an existing Cobra chassis, immediately increasing the top speed by 25 mph. That car won its first race, the 1964 Daytona Continental (hence the car’s Daytona name), and five more coupes were built, including CSX2601, the car that sold on Saturday.

After competing at Daytona, Monza, Spa and Nurburgring, CSX2601 clinched the 1965 World Manufacturers Championship on July 4 in Reims, France, with Bondurant at the wheel.